Rob Lowe & Sons Investigate the Paranormal in The Lowe Files Trailer

There’s a new paranormal investigator in town, and his name is Rob Lowe. In a totally unexpected direction for the actor, he’s just finished filming the new reality show for A&E called The Lowe Files, where he’s joined by his two sons Matthew and John Owen.

Lowe has had a long and varied career, once being part of the talented young acting group known as the Brat Pack, and starring in ’80s classics like St Elmo’s Fire and About Last Night. Since his early years, he’s gone on to do broad comedy (Austin Powers, Wayne’s World), political drama (The West Wing), and family films (Monster Trucks). He has brushed with the supernatural before, having starred in the 2004 version of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. But behind all that, apparently Lowe has been harboring a fascination with the paranormal and mysterious phenomena, which he has never explored until now.

The Lowe Files is a documentary/reality series that sees Lowe and his sons travel across the country, as they investigate a mass of unexplained sightings and weird incidents. The project was first announced in March, and A&E has just released the first trailer for the show [above], with the premiere due on August 2nd.

Lowe also spoke to EW and discussed how the show came about. It was initially something the family wanted to do “just for a laugh,” but it soon escalated into something bigger when A&E got involved. Calling it a mixture of “Anthony Bourdain with Scooby Doo.” Lowe also experienced some genuinely unnerving moments, particularly in an episode where the family hunts a Sasquatch-like creature;

“Nothing is staged, nothing is trick-cut — no B.S. I believe there are probably ghosts out there. The rest of [what we found I accepted on a] case-by-case basis, but we had an incredible encounter with what locals call the wood ape, which is in the Ozark Mountains. I’m fully aware that I sound like a crazy, Hollywood kook right now … Genuinely terrified? I was lying on the ground thinking I was going to be killed.”

On looking at the footage so far, it’s the typical night-vision and spooky noises that fill these types of reality shows, but the presence of Lowe lends it plenty of charm and some credibility. It’s not the first time celebrities have tried this sort of project, with Jack Osbourne doing something similar on the show Haunted Highway, which aired on the Syfy network back in 2012. But at least Lowe is honest in his intentions here, and wants to invoke the spooky spirit of Leonard Nimoy’s In Search Of…, rather than a serious results-driven exercise.

It’s clear that the Lowe family members are having fun with the concept and episodes will deal with subjects as diverse as an underwater alien base, a shaman at Preston Castle, and a reportedly haunted school. With other paranormal series like Finding Bigfoot and Ancient Aliens still showing, this could prove to be a fun show and a future guilty pleasure for many.